In a conventional glass sheet heating furnace having a bending section, a glass sheet shaping mold is mounted to a large mold support frame specifically designed for that mold. This combination of shaping mold and support frame forms a mold assembly. This assembly is generally universally mountable in the bending section. Each time a shaping mold or tool is changed, the support frame is disconnected from the bending section and the assembly is removed therefrom. Then, another mold mounted to another support frame is mounted in the bending section.
This conventional shaping mold mounting arrangement is expensive because it requires a large mold support frame for each shaping mold. Also, this assembly takes a large number of shifts to change the shaping mold because of, the awkwardness of handling the large support frame with shaping mold and, the cool down and heat up times of the support frame and shaping mold.